Abstract

Abstract

Analyses of the viral ribonucleic acids and structural polypeptides of 17–22 of the 119 accepted or proposed members of the Bunyavirus genus of arboviruses (family Bunyaviridae), have shown that from the standpoint of their structural components these viruses are highly comparable to each other. The average molecular weights for the three viral RNA species (L, large, M, medium, S, small) of 17 bunyaviruses were 2.93 × 106 (L, range 2.7–3.1 × 106), 2.0 × 106 (M, range 1.8–2.3 × 106), and 0.435 × 106 (S, range 0.28–0.50 × 106). The average molecular weights of the three major virion polypeptides (glycoproteins G1 and G2, and nucleocapsid protein, N) of 22 bunyaviruses were 115 × 103 (G1, range 108–120 × 103), 37 × 103 (G2, range 29–41 × 103) and 22 × 103 (N, range 19–25 × 103). These results indicate that the structural components of bunyaviruses are different from those reported for Phlebotomus fever, Uukuniemi, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other members of the Bunyaviridae family that are not currently assigned to a genus.